Sir Bradley Wiggins will set out on a lap of honour around the nation when the Tour of Britain begins on Sunday, but there could be a heated battle for honours up the road ahead of him.

Wiggins added yet another chapter to his glorious career last month by returning to the track to take an eighth Olympic medal and fifth gold as part of the team pursuit squad in Rio.

The 36-year-old is set to end his professional career at the Ghent Six in November, making this his final race on home roads.

Wiggins – who won this race in 2013 but will not be a serious contender this time around – will be one of eight Rio medallists taking part. Owain Doull, who was also in Britain’s team pursuit squad, will line up alongside him in the Team Wiggins squad.

Mark Cavendish will be back in Team Dimension Data colours after taking silver in the men’s omnium on the track in Brazil while the man who beat him to gold, Italian Elia Viviani, will race for Team Sky.

Holland’s Olympic time trial silver medallist Tom Dumoulin will race for Giant-Alpecin while three members of Australia’s silver-winning team pursuit squad - Jack Bobridge (Trek-Segafredo), Alex Edmondon and Michael Hepburn (both Orica-BikeExchange) - will also ride.

They are just part of a strong field which should set up an intriguing battle over eight stages which take the riders from Glasgow to London via Wales and Devon.

The world’s top sprinters, preparing for October’s pan-flat world championships in Qatar, have favoured this race over the mountainous Vuelta a Espana and British fans are in for a treat as a result.

Battle commences with this afternoon’s stage from Glasgow to Castle Douglas, the opening 161.6 kilometres of a 1281.6km route which finishes on Regent Street in the capital on September 11.